On May 13, 2004, Vdare.com published a short article by Rubenstein on the subject of the EITC and illegal immigrants. This new 51 page report contains no new data. It’s just embellished to make it appear to be based on an actual academic study of actual facts and data.
In his 2004 article, Rubenstein claimed that 39% of illegal immigrant households receive the ETIC making it the most compelling reason for illegal aliens to file tax returns. In the 2004 article Rubenstein conveniently left out the fact that illegal aliens are not entitled to the EITC regardless of their children’s immigration status or their spouse’s immigration status. But Rubenstein doesn’t let actual facts stop him from spreading his propaganda.
In his latest report, Rubenstein seems to be unsure whether or not he thinks illegal aliens may be entitled to receive the EITC. On page 7, he admits that the EITC is only available to people with valid Social Security numbers, i.e. not illegal aliens. He claims that illegal aliens are able to obtain money through the EITC by using counterfeit Social Security cards, identity theft and other scams. But he writes on page 12 that the Internal Revenue Code does not prohibit illegal aliens from receiving the EITC if they meet the eligibility requirements.
One of the requirements of obtaining the EITC that the filer be a U.S. citizen or resident alien for the entire year, or a nonresident alien married to a U.S. citizen or resident alien and filing a joint return. An illegal alien by definition cannot meet any of these requirements. So Rubenstein claiming that illegal aliens can receive the EITC if they meet the eligibility requirements is either a bold faced lie or a result of patent ignorance.
IRS Publication 596 clearly states that in order to be eligible for the EITC, the filer must have a valid SSN and must be a U.S. citizen or resident alien for the entire year. If filing jointly, then the spouse must have a valid SSN. Publication 596 is clear that persons using the ITIN (“Individual Taxpayer Identification Number”) are not eligible to receive the EITC.
On page 24, Rubenstein goes on to claim that nearly 40% of households headed by illegals from Mexico are eligible for EITC. In other words, Rubenstein lied. Illegal aliens cannot legally get the EITC under any circumstance.
Rubenstein claims that a disproportionate share of illegal alien households receive the EITC using “bogus” SSNs to get the EITC. He explains:
“Most illegal aliens have fraudulent Social Security cards. Their favorite target: young children. Social Security Numbers assigned to infants are stolen from medical paperwork and used to file returns. The fraud can go undetected for years – until the child looks for a job as a teenager.”
[Note: Rubenstein’s footnote to support this claim is a url to a CNN transcript. The url comes up “Page Not Found”.]
On page 14, Rubenstein presents a graph showing the percent of illegal aliens from Mexico that used various means-tested programs in 2000. The information came from a report issued by the Center for Immigration Studies (“CIS”) in 2001. The data that CIS used did not distinguish illegal Mexican immigrants from illegal Mexican immigrants. Instead, CIS estimated the number of illegal Mexican aliens based on year of entry, age, educational attainment, welfare use, and citizenship of spouse. In other words, as usual for a Rubenstein and CIS report, the information reported about illegal aliens is based on absolutely no actual data or evidence, only conjecture.
Based on this, Rubenstein concludes that households headed by illegal Mexican immigrants are more than three times as likely to receive EITC as households headed by native-born Americans.
Most of Rubenstein’s report is filled with mostly irrelevant information. He cites some reports from the General Accountability Office (f.k.a. General Accounting Office) estimating a considerable amount of fraud with respect to the EITC. It includes a diatribe about how the EITC constitutes taxing the rich and giving a handout to the poor.
What really shows the degree of Rubenstein’s lunacy is his claims of all the evils that the EITC causes. One is population growth: people decide to have children so they can get a couple thousand dollars through the EITC. EITC also depresses wages for low-skilled workers. And EITC, along with immigration, is responsible for the income gap between rich and poor in the U.S.
But Rubenstein takes the cake when he suggests that the EITC is responsible for the current credit crisis and economic downturn. It’s funny to see him explain it. You see, some people who receive the EITC get Refund Anticipation Loans (“RAF”s). These RAFs are high interest, high fee loans that enable people to get their hands on their tax refunds a little sooner. According to Rubenstein, the widespread availability of RALs made poor borrowers easy marks for sub-prime mortgage “hucksters”. The resulting defaults have pushed the entire economy to the brink of collapse. He doesn’t really explain exactly how RAFs have caused this, but then again, Rubenstein rarely presents facts to support his claims.
To summarize, Rubenstein’s report is based on a lie and an estimated, based on no facts or data, from 2001 CIS report mixed with a whole lot of B.S. That’s it.
That leads one to question how he gets away with this or why he would take the time to write up such a juvenile document. The real purpose of the report is for use as a citation. People can now cite this report in blogs, columns and debates. “According to a comprehensive study by Edwin S. Rubenstein, 39% of illegal immigrants obtain the Earned Income Tax Credit.” Most people won’t even read this report past the first couple of pages. Even fewer will actually inquire as to its validity. But like the sham CIS reports, it can now be used as a source when the propaganda is spread
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